te -
Teburoro TITO 52.3%, Dr. Harry TONG 45.8%, Amberoti NIKORA 1.9%,
Taberannang TIMEON 0%

Legislative branch: unicameral House of Assembly or Maneaba Ni
Maungatabu (41 seats; 39 elected by popular vote, one ex officio
member, and one nominated to represent Banaba; members serve four-year
terms)
elections: last held 23 September 1998 (next to be held by NA
September 2002)
election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party -
Maneaban Te Mauri Party 14, National Progressive Party 11,
independents 14

Judicial branch: Court of Appeal, judges at all levels are appointed
by the president; High Court, judges at all levels are appointed by
the president; 26 Magistrates' courts, judges at all levels are
appointed by the president

Political parties and leaders: Liberal Party ;
Maneaban Te Mauri Party ; National Progressive Party
; New Movement Party
note: there is no tradition of formally organized political parties in
Kiribati; they more closely resemble factions or interest groups
because they have no party headquarters, formal platforms, or party
structures

International organization participation: ACP, AsDB, C, ESCAP, IBRD,
ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IMF, Intelsat (nonsignatory user),
Interpol, ITU, Sparteca, SPC, SPF, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WTrO
(applicant)

Diplomatic representation in the US: Kiribati does not have an embassy
in the US; there is an honorary consulate in Honolulu

Diplomatic representation from the US: the US does not have an embassy
in Kiribati; the ambassador to the Marshall Islands is accredited to

Flag description: the upper half is red with a yellow frigate bird
flying over a yellow rising sun, and the lower half is blue with three
horizontal wavy white stripes to represent the ocean

@Kiribati:Economy

Economy - overview: A remote country of 33 scattered coral atolls,
Kiribati has few national resources. Commercially viable phosphate
deposits were exhausted at the time of independence from the UK in
1979. Copra and fish now represent the bulk of production and exports.
The economy has fluctuated widely in recent years. Economic
development is constrained by a shortage of skilled workers, weak
infrastructure, and remoteness from international markets. Tourism
provides more than one-fifth of GDP. The financial sector is at an
early stage of development as is the expansion of private sector
initiatives. Foreign financial aid, largely from the UK and Japan, is
a